No. 11 Stanford women hand No. 3 Baylor its first loss

In a duel of women’s college basketball heavyweights, Stanford hit its threes and played tough defense against the nation’s top field-goal-shooting team Saturday.

It also had a huge lift from the woman behind the mask.

Shannon Coffee, a 6-foot-5 backup center, has become a Baylor-killer. She hit three three-pointers at key times as the No. 11 Cardinal handed the No. 3 Lady Bears their first loss, 68-63.

“Shannon’s been a role player on our team,” head coach Tara VanDerveer said. “A lot of times she’s led the cheers on the bench. Today people were cheering for her.” She called it the best game of Coffee’s four-year career.

In their first game in two weeks because of exams, the Cardinal extended their home winning streak to 15 games and snapped Baylor’s 36-game regular-season win streak. The streak included 12 wins over top-25 teams.

The Cardinal (7-1) made 13 of 30 shots from distance and held Baylor (8-1), averaging a nation-best 55.7 percent from the floor, to 34.9 percent.

Coffee hit two of her threes in the third quarter, but the one that brought down the house came with three minutes left. Stanford was nearly down to the end of the shot clock when it got the ball to Coffee in the corner.

A defender “was flying out at me, so I took a quick dribble and shot,” Coffee said. That made it 68-58 Stanford.

She finished with nine points and played strong defense on Baylor’s leading scorer, 6-7 Kalani Brown, who was held to five points, 11 below her average.

Coffee, wearing a mask after taking an elbow in the nose in practice during the week, has scored 48 points in the past two years, and 23 have come against the Lady Bears.

“I guess we bring out the best in Coffee,” Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey said.

This season, Coffee was averaging one point and 4.6 minutes before she played 17½ minutes Saturday.

“I knew their bigs were their leading scorers, so there was going to be a lot of battling down low,” Coffee said. “So I was really focusing on defense.”

Stanford enjoyed an 18-point lead late in the first half, but Baylor mounted a rally that scared the Cardinal at the end.

Twice in the last minute and a half, down by seven points, the Lady Bears allowed the Cardinal to take almost the entire shot clock of 30 seconds without fouling.

“I thought we could make defensive stops,” Mulkey said. “Make a defensive stop, make a steal, get a rebound. … There was enough time to come back down, hit a three and maybe foul quickly there. Just didn’t think there was an urgency to do it at that point.”

The result was that in the final 2:58, Baylor got off a total of two shots and two free throws.

Chloe Jackson and NaLyssa Smith had 15 points each to lead Baylor, which had a 43-30 rebounding advantage. Stanford cut down on the Lady Bears’ transition baskets and allowed just three second-chance points.

The Cardinal might have had an easier time if they hadn’t made just 9 of 21 foul shots. “I thought we shot ourselves in the foot by not knocking down free throws,” VanDerveer said. “We kept the door open with that.”